Why is it Important to be Doers of the Word and Not Forgetful Hearers?

Would love that you come see and pray? And here I am. James Chapter I trust that all the folks that have the mountains camping together are having a wonderful time of worship. At the same time we are James chapter one. If you'll turn there and let's read from verse 18, as James was writing a pastoral letter to his flock that had been scattered because of persecution and difficult circumstances and he writes from a pastor's heart as love for them. And he says in verse 18, and the exercise of his will, he brought us forth by the word of truth so that we would be a kind of first foot among us creatures. This you know, my beloved brethren, but everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger.

For the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God. Therefore, putting aside all filth in us and all the remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word and planted which is able to save your souls, but prove yourselves doers of the word and not merely hears who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror, for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. And one who looks intently at the perfect law of the law of liberty and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer, but an effectual doer. This man will be blessed in what he does.

If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle this tongue, but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is worthless. Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world. Today we want to look at this issue that James writes about in these verses as he addresses this flock, and that is the issue of whether you are a forgetful hearer or an effectual doer. What is your relationship to the word? And specifically in this context, as that word unveils the good news of Christ. Oftentimes we give ourselves credit as James tells us in this passage, for having the word of God hidden in our hearts when in reality we are simply forgetful hearers.

Some people wonder after a few years or when they go through certain things in their Christian life, why they are not being changed, why they aren't growing in the faith, why God isn't making some big differences in helping them to overcome some besetting sin, causing them to mature. What is the key? Well in this passage, James, because he is talking in the context about troubles and trials and tests, difficult times, and James has explained these are by the design of God for a very good purpose. And God takes us through great difficulties at times, but it is always for his good purpose and what he is doing in our lives, for his glory and for our good. And what we learn in this passage is so helpful, but it is also so challenging.

It is confrontational. Paul said that the word of God has this quality to it, that when you come to it, it teaches you the truth you need to know. But it also proves you about things in your life that needs to change, and that corrects you. It sets you up straight and shows you the way you should go, and then it trains you with every step that you take in the Christian life. Sometimes we resist that. We like to sample sermons, and once in a while at least, I listen to a lot of sermons as I am traveling about, and I love to hear preaching, and I know some people don't love it that much, but if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, if you are a follower of Christ, then you do love to hear the word of God proclaimed.

But sometimes, the scriptures don't seem to have the kind of effect in our life that we expect or that we want it to. And so James begins to tell them why and what they ought to do in the midst of their trials and what role the word of God is going to play. He's already instructed them about their need for wisdom in the midst of trials. And now notice what he does. He begins this section, really, in verse 18, it's kind of a transitional part of this passage. And he says to him in verse 18, in the exercise of his will, he brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be the kind of first fruits among his creatures. You know this, my beloved brethren, this you are aware of this, he says to them.

Now, God, according to these verses, what James is saying is that God gives hold us through the gospel. The way that he came out of salvation, that's what salvation is. It's complete hold us. It's forgiveness. It's being made holy. It's not just having your sins forgiven, but it is having a radical change in your heart. And the salvation process that lasts throughout all of life and it's not going to culminate until we enter into the presence of God, it has this quality to it. It is making us whole. In fact, the Old Testament words shallown, which you often hear as agreeing. That word shallown means wholeness, means peace in the sense of everything being really whole and together. If you reflect like you are just ripped apart, that you are fragmented in so many ways, we live in a world where people are really fragment and we're going in so many directions.

It's hard for us to sit still and to worship together for an hour and a half. The fleshers, I talked them last Sunday afternoon and they tell me they went to a Nigerian Pentecostal church because they're one of those employees who is a Nigerian and he goes to this church and Nigerian Pentecostal church and I said, well, how was it? And he says, well, it was lively. And not only that, but it lasted four hours. And he said it was teenage day, so the teenagers had the service and they did everything and he said the preacher was the youth pastor and he said he preached for two hours. And after two hours, the only reason he stopped is the pastor who sat on the federal held up a sign and said, your time is up.

And so he closed. You know, some people find it difficult and there are many churches who order their services so they don't only last 50 minutes. You have a 10-minute sermon, sing a few songs and give people out because they can't stand to sit still this long. We are a fragmented people. We look at time so unlike the gospel calls us to look at time. Time is the opportunity for relationship with God and with His people. And so James wants them to know that this wholeness that you have entered into through salvation comes through the gospel. And notice this. He says, first of all, that it is by God's initiative. You see that praise and the text there, in the exercise of his will, that is in the exercise of God's will, that is what initiated your salvation.

It was the will of God. It was God exercising his will to save you. That's what brought wholeness into your life and that's a wonderful thing. He says this initiative ends up in our spiritual birth, that's what he means by the expression. He brought us forth. He calls us to be born. He is a father. We were talking this morning at a conversation this morning about whether all people are God's children. Well, there is a sense in which that's true because the whole human race descended from Adam and then, of course, from Noah. And we are the result of God's creation and we were created in the image of God. And so there is a sense in which you could say that we are children of God by natural birth, but the way that Bible uses that expression has to do with the new birth.

It has to do with this initiative that God takes in causing us to be born again. And we become children of God. He actually puts his life in us. His seed is in us, John says in 1 John 3.9. We have God's life in us and we are to have His likeness because we are His children. And so by His initiative, He gives us spiritual birth and He says that this is by the gospel. Notice that. He says this is by the word of truth. That's an expression that refers to the gospel. The good news of salvation in Christ. The good news that God saves people by His grace and not their works. The good news that Christ came and died for sinners so that sinners could be reconciled by God and made God's children and spend eternity at His table.

That's the good news. And that good news is what brought you salvation. It's how God calls you to be born again. It's the way that the seed was implanted in your heart. It was through the gospel, the word of truth. And He says this is for a glorious purpose. Notice the purpose that we should be a kind of first fruit among its creatures. Not fruit cakes. But first fruits. That is that we should manifest the ultimate salvation that's going to come to this creation. When you look around you and you see people who come out of sin and degradation and darkness and they enter into a relationship with God and their lives are transformed. It is a fair text of what's going to happen in this universe. In Romans chapter 8, the Apostle Paul says, the whole creation is groaning right now waiting for the day when it's going to be set free and experience the freedom of the sons of God.

We are the first fruits with the first ones who have experienced this work of regeneration. In fact, one of the ways the word regeneration is used in the Bible the primary way has to do with the renewing of the universe that everything is going to be made new. And Christ is going to reign supreme and we are going to experience the glory of His purpose for our lives. So God has taken the initiative and He has set us affection on us and He has drawn us to Himself and causes us to be born again through the gospel. And being born again through the gospel is a wonderful purpose. God has a purpose for your life that by the way you live in this world, you would show forth what the ultimate salvation of this universe is going to be like as people are drawn into reconciliation with God.

Well, so what? We should always ask that. We study the Bible. Every time you discover something that the Bible teaches, you should always ask so what? Not so wide in the sense of I don't care, but so wide in the sense of so what should I do? Well, difference does this make? That God has taken this initiative that He has given us spirits or birth by the gospel and that He has the greatest purpose in our lives. Well, notice, remember in the context, He's talking to people who are going through trials hard times as Christians. And primarily because they are Christians, not because the economy is bad, although it has. Not just because they were growing old and they had some aches and pains, though some of them were, but the primary reason they're going through difficulties is because there are followers of Christ, because they're disciples.

And because there are disciples, they're being persecuted and being done to them. And so James is writing them about this issue. And so he tells them this in order to make application, that application is this, that in your trials, since it is true that God took the initiative and God is you to be born again through the gospel and that He has a glorious purpose for your life, therefore everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger. There's your instructions this week when you have a trial and it's because it makes perfect sense because you have been born again through the initiative of God and He has a great purpose for your life. Therefore, when you enter into trouble and trials, be quick to hear and slow to speak and slow to anger.

Now don't misread that, you may be a little dyslexic and you may misread that. It doesn't say be slow to hear, quick to speak and quick to anger. I know that's the natural response that we have. Blow up, simmer, and then finally gain your senses and start listening. But instead he says be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger. When the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God. When you fall into great difficulty and you think you get very angry that this has happened to you and you are going to make things right just because you're so angry. Let me give you a little advice from a very experienced man and that method, that approach. It doesn't work. And what he calls us to do is to be quick to hear and slow to speak and slow to anger.

Why does that work? Because God has a glorious purpose for your life. Because he begot you again through the gospel of Jesus Christ and he is at work in your life. And so the trials of life are part of his purpose. Let me explain something to you. I just mentioned the fact that God is the one who initiates a salvation in Romans chapter 8 and Ephesians chapter 1 that says that an eternity passed before there was ever a creation before God even created anything. It says that he thought I loved you, that he chose you for himself. Now I know that's mysterious. Some people think that it's mysterious because God hasn't chosen everyone. I don't think that's mysterious at all. I think what's really mysterious is why did he choose me?

And why did he choose you to be honest? Why? Because he has, it's his initiative. In other words, salvation is grace. Salvation is a gift. Salvation is something that God's done for you. It wasn't God, plus you, it was God, it's monogistic, as the theologians say, not synergistic. It isn't you and God got a good thing going, but rather God saved you by his grace. Now let me tell you why people don't like that. Because if that's true, if it's true what the Bible says, that salvation is of the Lord, that he's the initiator, that he's the sovereign one who reached out into your life and saved you, that means he can ask you to do anything. But if you had something to do with it, then God owns you.

And salvation to some degree is a reward, but if God did it, that means whatever he chooses to allow you to go through, it's his prerogative. He doesn't owe you. You owe him everything, because he saved you by his grace. You know, that's a freeing truth to know that God doesn't owe me, but I owe God, and that whatever he decides to bring into my life, whatever he decides to bring into my life, there's no big deal, because of the greatness of the salvation that he has worked in me, and the greatness of his promises. Whatever he calls on me to do, I can submit to, theoretically and theologically, practically I have problems with other times. But based upon the word of God, since he has done it all, it frees me up to realize that God doesn't owe me a thing.

He doesn't owe it to me to give me a smooth life. Now, he hasn't promised you a rose garden, in fact, he hasn't even promised you a smooth path. In fact, actually, he's promised you that more than likely you're going to suffer, because you're a follower of Jesus Christ. But notice secondly, now he has got to give us wholeness through the gospel, but we experience on a daily basis as believers wholeness through the gospel. The way that we continue to experience wholeness in a practical daily way is through the gospel. I think this is one of the most powerful truths in all the Bible, and it's one that I think many people have a heart done getting a handle on. I don't think they're here. I don't think it penetrates their minds.

And Luther said, you should pound this into people's heads. I would never say a thing like that, but he said it. This is a hard truth to grasp, but all of God's blessings in the Christian life come through the gospel, through obeying the gospel and believing the gospel and applying the gospel to my life. And notice what he says in verse 21, therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all the remains and that with that expression, all the remains means the abundance, the overflow of wickedness. In the picture that, by the way, you could relate to this. The picture is right, an army that is so massive that every time you kill one soldier that's coming against you, another one pops up, it's kind of like an invasion of ants in your kitchen.

It seems like you've got them all, and then there's a bunch more. That's what he needs there by what remains of wickedness, the overflow of wickedness. In other words, there are things in our hearts as God is doing, He's working a lot, we've come to faith. But there's still these things that we characterize as fulkingness, that is they prude us. And there's abundance of wickedness. We think we have it all together and then God through the gospel allows us to see just how sinful our pride is, how sinful our independent spirit is, how sinful our drive to meet our needs independently of God is. And we recognize there's another soldier, and he says in humility, receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls.

He says that we, because we have come to have wholeness through the gospel, that we need to have this attitude, that there is no turning back. We are to put aside, strip off like dirty clothing, all the filthiness, and all the remains of wickedness. In other words, don't tolerate sin and sinful attitudes in your life, James is saying. Can you imagine it was when he was raised in the tomb, remember when Christ raised him from the tomb, and he came out of the grave, he was wrapped in a grave clothes, wrapped him up, they would wrap him up like a mummy, and in fact his sisters didn't want Jesus to open the roll of his stomach because they knew that his body had already begun to corrupt, and it would smell.

And so he says, they said, please don't do that. And then Jesus calls him out of the tomb, and here comes Lazarus, and he's got his grave clothes on. Now, I don't know if those grave clothes were filthy, it doesn't say, but can you imagine in the very next chapter of the account, Jesus goes to Lazarus home for supper? And they have a special dinner there, and Jesus and Lazarus are like the special guests. Can you imagine if Lazarus were to show that in his grave clothes, how foolish that would have looked? Well, that's the picture here, when God sued you, what He wants you to do is strip off the clothing of the old man, that is that lifestyle that's characterized by filthiness and this overflow of wickedness.

We need to recognize that otherwise gone, the apostle Peter puts it this way, you know, you spend enough time in sin. When your friends come to you and say, hey, once you go run with us, let's go have a party. Let's go sin together. Peter says, the fact is, you've already sinned enough, and you know, whether you came to Christ at a very young age, or whether you came to Christ as an adult, you've sinned enough, haven't you? Do you think He reached your core there? Do you think He's done enough lying and sinning in a God'sness? That's what Peter says. I know I have. And so we need to understand that if we're going to experience hold us through the gospel, first of all, we have to understand that we must strip off the old man if we're going to be believing in the gospel.

If we're going to experience the power of the gospel in our lives on a daily basis and to be changed and transformed by it, secondly, we have to be believing in the gospel again. This is what's difficult about this truth, is that people think this. This is kind of the common understanding that people have, just naturally. You believe the gospel would be saved, and then after you've believed in the gospel and you've grown past the gospel, then you begin to obey the commandments of God in order to grow. Now, the only monkey wrench in the works is that you keep failing, and you keep disobeying. And so what's the solution? Well, the solution is the gospel. You see the way I find forgiveness is the gospel.

And the way that I grow, he says here, is through the gospel. In humility, I haven't seen the word implanted. That is another expression. I'll show you an amenity. He uses five different expressions for the gospel. And this is the second one, the word implanted. And it's because this is what has happened. God has caused his word of the gospel, the good news of salvation and Christ to be implanted in your heart. You embraced it. You believed it. It became yours. A few weeks ago, we talked about the process of temptation and lust and how it happens that a lust rises in our hearts, a desire to meet our needs our own way without God. And then the next step is it concedes. And the conception there is when we embrace it, when we own it as our own, when we fantasize about it, when we decide we can picture it in our imagination, where it would be like to fulfill that lust in order to meet our thought, need.

Well, here you have the opposite. Here you have the picture of how we grow. You're not going to grow in this process unless you receive the implanted word. Now, he's not talking here about you getting saved. He's not talking about people coming from unbelief to belief and entering into forgiveness of sins. He's talking about the believer receiving the implanted word, the word that is in you, the word that has brought you homeless, that has brought you forgiveness of sins, that has brought you into the family of God, that's in gospel, is the gospel, you must be daily receiving. Now, we'll explain what that means in a minute. But it certainly means that as I fell and as I fought, I turned back to the same gospel.

It is the basis of my deliverance today as it was 50 years ago when I first believed in Christ. So we believed the gospel again and again in order to grow by it. And then finally, we will experience salvation again and again as we embrace that. Notice that expression, this implanted word, this gospel that is in your heart that you have embraced by faith is so of your souls. Now, understand, when this expression is used, the word soul in the Bible often hears how we think of the word soul. We think of the word soul as that's a part of me. I have a spirit, I have a soul, and I have a body. That's not the primary way it's used. More often than not, the word soul as used is to describe the whole person with the emphasis being from the inside out, the total person, not just the exterior, not just the face you put on for people, but who you are in the deepest level, the whole person.

And he says this word that is implanted when we receive it, it is able to save, set free to deliver our soul, our whole person. We are able to experience the power of the gospel on a daily basis, in other words. For example, if you struggle with racism, racism, in order to walk consistently with the gospel of Jesus Christ, you need to understand any trace of racism in your heart is walking at variance with the gospel of Jesus Christ. The only thing that can save you from that kind of thing is the gospel, Christ's gospel. Spiritual pride, materialism, all those issues, the implications of the gospel in Galatians 2.14, remember the situation where the Apostle Peter was eating with the Gentile Christians and Antioch, fellowshiping with them every day, things were great, they were growing and Peter the Apostle to the Jews was just having a wonderful time, and then some brethren came from Jerusalem, and when they came from Jerusalem and what was this was the background of it, because Christians, as Jewish Christians, as they begin to spread out through the Roman Empire, they begin to piece the gospel to Gentiles, they begin to receive Gentiles, as truly saved in the part of the family of God without being circumcised and without becoming Jewish.

When we're not back to Jerusalem, these Christians Jews were doing this, they begin to persecute the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem, because they thought they were destroying Judaism, they were destroying the nation and the covenant and the promise, and so this word comes to Peter and they're telling him, look Peter, what you're doing is hurting us back in Jerusalem, and he succumbed to the pressure, and Peter withdrew and he stopped having fellowship, table fellowship for these Gentiles, and Paul confronts him, and he says, Peter, you are not walking straight through in me with the gospel, you are not walking in line with the gospel, what you are doing is a violation of the gospel, and you see all of life is this way, every part of your life, you're thinking, you're feeling your actions, your attitudes, all of them, you ought to be walking and living and thinking and believing in line with the gospel.

This great revelation of God in Christ Jesus, it changes everything, it changes our whole identity, it changes the identity of the whole world, the Apostle Apostles, I don't look at any person any longer through the flesh, I look at every person through the cross, every person you will ever meet, a drug addict, a homosexual, the way you treat homosexuals may be absolutely inconsistent with the gospel, if all you do is reject them and hate them and despise them. The gospel changes everything, a lot of people when they hear this expression, well you know, he became a born again Christian and that means, well, he became a political conservative, he hates abortion and he hates homosexuals and he's a homophobic and he's this and that, and people think that's what being born again Christian is, the reason we are against abortion is because of the gospel, it's not because we have no compassion on people, it's because of the gospel, the gospel tells us the truth about life, tells us the truth about persons, tells us the truth about how we are to treat and respond to issues like that, we have to walk in line with the gospel and so Paul confronts Peter about the fact he wasn't walking consistently with the gospel and you know what, he would confront us too in ways that we're not walking consistently with the gospel.

James a little later on this book is going to say when you use your tongue to curse men and use that same tongue to bless God, you're totally inconsistent, he says that doesn't make any sense that you would use your mouth to praise God and then you curse those who are made in his image, that's not consistent with the gospel and so he's calling us to walk consistent with the gospel and as we do, we experience salvation again and again deliverance, you see there's still a lot of sin down there, there's still abundance of wickedness still in your heart, I hate to tell you that, you don't look like that, you all look like people who just had your sin eradicated, I grew up in a determination that we taught eradication of the sin nature, you could have an experience and that was called sanctification, you experienced this and God took your sin away, completely took your sin naturally, you no longer sinful, you could make mistakes but you couldn't sin, isn't that amazing?

I knew two brothers, they were actually related to me who got in a fist fight and they both had been sanctified and I asked one of them, how could this be, how could you be without sin and yet you fight one another, he says well you can make mistakes and he was making a mistake, now the fact is there's still sin there and God wants to deliver you of that sin every day, he wants to deliver you and change you and transform you and that transformation comes to the gospel, believing the gospel, when you discover you're not walking consistently with the gospel, you turn to Christ and you find deliverance and God saves people every day, saves his people from their sins every day, he saves them from these sins that are so horrendous and deep, and it marred the history of the church many times, he saves us through the gospel and through the truth of the gospel, this is why Paul wrote to the Romans and Romans 16, I can't wait till I get there and establish you through my gospel, these were believers, but he says I want you to come to maturity through understanding the gospel, the same thing is true of us, so what?

Believe in the gospel is necessary every day and if it's through the gospel that I'm going to grow, then what are the implications for me? He says, God for verse 22, prove yourselves, do is of the word and not merely hear us who delivered themselves, and I'd like you to notice something, if you are simply a hear of the word you're probably not aware of it, if you're a Christian and characteristically this is going on in a life right now, you're simply a hear of the word that you're not going to do it, you probably don't know it, because notice the characteristic here, go through, do not do the word, they simply hear, they delivered themselves, they deceived themselves, in other words they're self deceived, anytime somebody says to me, you know, I already know all that stuff, I never know anything, because the Bible says, if you think you know, if you don't know, because if you know, if you're at it, if it is this, oh, I know so little, I know so little of God's revelation and the gospel and its mighty implications, I know so little, but oh, I want to know more, why is it so crucial that we, the dealers of the word and not forgetful here, why is that such an important thing, that you become a dealer of the word and not a forgetful here, why can't I just spend a few years being a hear of the word, big to wolf is here this morning, good to see him, and this dear brother when I, I can remember him in a house conversation for about 14 years ago, 15 years ago talking about how when they moved to Brentwood and they began to go to the church, they had already served a word in so many ways, they had been involved in maps, they had gone out building churches and doing work and all this and so when they settled in here, they decided they weren't going to get involved in ministry, they were just going to rest and then just enjoy people and not get involved in ministry, but what happened was they just couldn't help themselves, you see, because the word of God has impact and because the word of God has impact, we become doers of the word and not simply hearers who delivered themselves, that's the power of the gospel in our lives and what is this, he says that forgetful here is not experiencing the power of the gospel, he's talking about believers here and he's talking about those believers who are merely hearers but not doers of the word and he says they don't experience the power of the gospel, notice what he says, if anyone has a hear of the word and not a doer, he's like a man who looks at his natural face in the mirror and that's something you do every day, right?

Now I know some of you are more careful than others, some of you take a longer look, but what he's saying is this is just a daily occurrence, you're looking in the mirror and maybe some of you ladies spend an hour, maybe some of you guys spend an hour and a half, you look in the mirror for a moment really and then you go buy your business and that doesn't dominate your day, what was revealed to you in the mirror and it doesn't affect you the life that much, you may think a lot, you need to get a hook at the day, or you know what, I need to say that $3,000 to get a facelift or something like that, but it doesn't really dominate your life, which is up there to hear, forgetful here is, he listens to the word, but it has no impact, he doesn't see anything there that is urgent, he can sit and listen to the word when I was a teenager sitting in church every week in San Pablo, California, I can remember going to Richmond High and boy life was a struggle at Richmond High in those years, there were race, wars going on there, people getting beat up all the time, it was like a war zone and I can remember sitting in church through those years and wanting to steal myself from being affected by the Bible, I was a Christian, but it was tough, I felt, to live like a Christian in that context and so I didn't want to be affected by the Bible and so I would kind of harden my heart intentionally and that I wouldn't be affected by it, all I want to do is hear and see the forgetful here, he's the guy who just looks in the mirror, sees his face and he goes on, has no impact, no urgency, there's no infotations there, I love James, he has a description of this passage and he talks about the word of God, the implanted word which gave us birth is like our mother and we ought to respond to it the way we do our mother's voice, when we were little kids, when mothers spoke, you listen and you listen to discover what you wanted you to do, but notice it's a forgetful here, he looks, he doesn't see any urgency and it says verse 24 for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he's immediately forgot what kind of person he was, no impact, not experiencing the ongoing effects of believing the gospel, we can be in that kind of mode as a Christian, we can go through that for months and sometimes even years and it can be repetitive, why is that?

Because we don't see the need, we're not allowing the gospel to do the powerful work that it does, Romans chapter 6 verse 17 says that the word of God, this truth of who Christ is and what he's done across, that he's been raised in the dead and boy out of spirit, this truth has transformed our life and set us free from sin. But the power we do now is to think, oh, that doesn't have that 150 times and no impact, he says, we're like the forgetful here, who simply hears something and walks away and maybe even says, boy, that was good today, but no urgency, no penetration, never's on the other hand, the effects will do her, he's being transformed by the gospel, this is the person who is experiencing the ongoing transforming power of the gospel, he says, the one who looks intently at the perfect law, the word intently means to stoop over, it's the word that was used and described John when he got to the tomb of Jesus, remember?

And Peter goes in and well, first of all, John arrives first and he still so many looks in, he's intense, he wants to see what's there because Peter just blows that vine and goes in. But the idea of this word is that it is to intently look at something to stoop over and pay attention to concentrate, to dig deep, to try to understand. And so he says, the one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty and advise about it, not only become a forgetful here, but an effectual view of this man will be blessed in what he does. Here it is, this is the word of God. And the word of God says, the person who looks intently and who abide in it, that person is going to be an effectual view and he's going to be blessed in what he does, he's going to grow through the word.

You ever wonder what you fall into the same traps year after year and you keep going in circles and you keep falling in the same patterns of life, you know, you don't want anybody to know that you feel so incredibly immature spiritually because you stumble over the same old things. But here's the key to growth. The key to growth is that God loses his word and powered by the spirit to change us. It is believing the gospel in our daily life and for our daily life. How do we see the word that is implanted in us? This gospel is life changing and it flows. This change that takes place is being transformed by the gospel, flows from obedience to the gospel, walking in line with the gospel. When I come up on a truth that confronts me about my life and my attitude and my practice and I see that I'm not walking in line with the gospel and I submit to that, that's when I grow.

When I act based upon the truth of the gospel instead of my own desires, that's when I grow. Growth takes place. Notice the pattern here, he was using these expressions for the gospel. He first calls it the word truth, the common expression, a fairly common expression in scripture, a variations of it referring to the gospel. He next calls in verse 21 the word implanted because this is the word that you took hold that by faith. It was implanted in your heart and then he calls it twice the word, the unveiling of God. That's what the, that's what the whole Bible is about. It all points to Christ. And then here he calls it the perfect law in verse 25. Now why does he do that? What does he switch from word to law?

Because the gospel has implications for you. God has commandments that are out of the gospel. Husbands love your lives the way Christ of the Church, they're willing to lay down your life, or that's a command of the gospel. And it is a perfect law because it brings maturity. It's a perfect law because the only law that was their law that has now come to fruition and perfection in Christ. The law, the most of the law pointed to Jesus and now Jesus is fulfilled it. And now the perfect law we live under is the commandments of Jesus Christ that flow out of the gospel. That was promised in Jeremiah 31. The problem with Israel was they had a law that was grouped with, they couldn't keep the commands because of their hearts.

He said this new law is going to be written on your heart. It's a perfect law and then he calls it the law of liberty because it sets you free. You want to be free? The way would be free is to live an obedience to Christ. That brings freedom. We obey the commands and the implications of the gospel in our relationships and our thinking and our emotions and all those things. It brings freedom. We can be set free. That's the gospel. Now notice, it is crucial to be doers of the word and not forgetful ears because forgetful ears are not experienced in the power of the gospel. And secondly, they don't experience the power of the gospel because they are self deceived. Notice verse 26, if anyone thinks himself to be religious, that his thinks that he is life is a life of service and worship of the true God.

He says, and yet he does not bride of his tongue, but the seas his own heart. This man's religion is worthless. The word worthless is the biblical word that's used to describe idolatry, worshiping idols that have no life in them and no power. He says, when your religion doesn't impact your tongue, it's worthless. Now in this context is very important because the problem right away that you respond to trials is with your mouth or with your tongue, with the expression of your heart. And he said a person whose tongue has not bridled his tongue, his tongue has not been brought under the lordship of Christ. He doesn't use his mouth to build up and to minister. He doesn't do spiritual inquiry. A person's living under the authority of the gospel is looking for opportunities to speak to people.

And he used their mouth to minister the gospel, both the believer and the believer. We do spiritual inquiry. We should be talking about the gospel to one another. That's what Malachi says. Malachi says the people that God listens to. The conversation that he's interested in is when among the people of God we speak to one another about the gospel and its implications. And so when we do spiritual inquiry, when I say to you, hey tell me about how you came to Christ. Tell me about what God's doing in your life. What are your hopes in Christ? What do you want to see God do in your life? When we start asking those kind of questions, our time is bridled. We're using our tongue under the authority of Christ.

If all I'm saying to you is, hey, when's the last time you change your oil? You're not one of those cars that blew it up. You need to be kept. You have to change your oil. Well, hey, I know you're going to get confused. You think we can come over and fix my hard drive. You know, those are okay, but I wish you'd wait until you go out those doors before you talk about that. I think when we're in it, we've come here together to share on Christ, talk to each other about spiritual truths and realities. And don't be afraid to ask one another questions. Don't be afraid to ask a brother, a sister. What's God doing in your life? What's he teaching you? How did you come to Christ? You might run into somebody who doesn't come to Christ.

You might have an opportunity to share the gospel with somebody right here in this church when we meet together. But he says the man whose tongue is not affected, not bridled. He says he's self-deceived. He thinks he has a religion that's facing the God and it's not. And then he says the effectual doer, not only has been transformed by the gospel, but he's been transformed because he's obeying the gospel. What I mean by that is he's seen more and more implications for his life and he has obeying those implications. He's lining his life up and he's beginning to walk according to the gospel. He's changing. I've seen God transform people radically to the gospel. I remember when Steve Fernandez got saved.

He was 20 years old and he was a wild-eyed riddener of the hippies. I mean he was long-haired. He belonged to a group of guys he ran with. He wanted to blow up the Bank of America, one of the Bank of America branches in Berkeley. He was in 1971. And he was a radical, a total political liberal of the worst kind. And we had in our church a guy who was so conservative, I don't even know how to describe him in every way. Very stiff, very conservative. And it was amazing to see these two men together. This older man and this young radical. You know what happened? The gospel changed them both. Changed their attitudes. Transform them. That's what the gospel does to us. And it's when we obeyed the gospel.

We obeyed its implications. And notice how he puts it here. Peer and undefower religion in the side of God. Our father is this. To visit orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world. Now what he's doing here is he is saying that the personal base of gospel fulfills the two great commandments. Now he's using a particular instance of the two great commandments because it was what they were facing. They had widows and orphans among them. And in the first century culture, if you were a widow on earth and you were absolutely in distress. There was no social security. There were no social programs. A woman couldn't make a living. And she was a true widow as Paul describes it, not having a family to help and a total alarm.

She had no life to make it. They were in distress. And so he says that true religion is to visit. That is to minister to the needs of the orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world. The state of the world is this. The world system is designed to capture your love. And what I mean by that, this is what James is going to say in James chapter four is what John says in first John chapter two. The world system is designed to get you the love things instead of God. The lust through flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life. The real system is designed to get you to put it on your assets into a neatly package and to remove them from the control of Christ.

That's the pride of life, the pride of being able to take care of yourself and not having to defend on God. So one of the first things that was blown away in the early church, which made it like Barnabas, sells his property and gives everything away. The gospel is so transformed in. Gospel does that. It's transforming power. And so to keep yourself unstained by the world is not to love the world but to love God. It's not to disdain the world. It's not to hide from the world where Jesus is sent us into the world. We have to be engaged in the world. Engage with people but not to be attracted to it and not to be disdainful of it. I had a statistic yesterday that the among Christian people of all kinds of groups, people who call themselves Christians, conservative by the living Christians, more than even other groups have fled the city.

The cities of this country, the kind of cities are primarily non-orthodox or non-protest because conservative by the living Christians have fled the city. Why do they do that? Why do we do that? Because we want to get away from all that sin. And isn't that amazing that it's here? When you got here, you're fired through, isn't it? But you know what? It's covered very much better here. Isn't that it's dressed up different? It looks different. Much different. I used to work in Berkeley on San Pablo Avenue for years. I worked there as I was going through college in seminary. And right across the street was a club. And in what it was, it was a club where they did cocaine. And there were prostitutes and temps that came out of there every morning when I came to work from about 730 until about 10 that'd become an eye that blurring and they could barely stand the sunlight.

They'd been in a drunken party all night long. And I used to have to do business with those people. You know what? It's a perfect place to be when you have the gospel. Perfect place to be. It's where sinners know their sinners when you have the gospel that is powerful like this gospel we have. But think the living God that this gospel can save sinners that cover up their sin in a much better way, just like he can save those sinners who don't cover up their sin. He can save white middle class people as well as saving the down and outers. Isn't that wonderful? Because we need it just as bad. But this powerful gospel, this powerful gospel comes about by us obeying it and he says it will then issue into this kind of obedience, keeping yourself in stone from the world, not separated from it in the sense of not engaging in it and being there and sharing the gospel and living the gospel.

And secondly, we'll obey the commandment of living in neighbor. And in this context, he's talking specifically about taking care of orphans and widows in their distress. Jonathan Edwards said something staggering to me and I am still mowing over it. But he said that the clearest commandment that Christ has given to the church more than any other is that we are to minister to the poor. Now, I got to read his explanation because that was astounding to me. In other words, it's not an option. It's a condition that we have to minister to the poor. Now, you may be thinking, well, we're supposed to minister to the poor in the church, the poor Christians. And Edwards says, go to the city, find the poor and find the Christians there that are poor and minister to them.

If that's what you're worried about. Now, what I'm getting at is the gospel transforms people so radically that they can begin to live their lives in a way that they couldn't even imagine. That they see certain Christians who give themselves to Christ into the look of the gospel in such radical ways. And I think that's great for him, but man, I could never be like that. Oh, yes, you can. If you little life of obedience to the gospel, you can be transformed by it. God can change your heart. You can begin to have the kind of attitude that Jesus did. You can begin to love not only your wife, but people in such a way that you'll lay down your life of them. The gospel transforms. It literally transforms people's lives.

So you need to ask yourself this morning, are you a forgetful here or an effectual door of the gospel? Is the gospel transforming your life? Is it continually working on you? Is it continually changing you? A forgetful here is not experiencing the power of the gospel because he's self deceived. So if we're nearly here, we probably aren't even aware of it. We probably are giving ourselves credit for being doers when we aren't. The effectual door is being transformed by the gospel because he's obeying the gospel and it's implications. The gospel will make men love their wives like Christ of the church. It will make women respect their husbands the way the church respects Christ. It will heal us of the effects of sin in our life.

It will cause us to love people the way Christ loves people, to be willing to lay our lives down that way. What steps do you need to take? And I really like you to think about this. And in the privacy of your own heart this week, think about these things, what do you need to be to do in order to become an effectual doer of the gospel? First you need to dig deep and that's the point of his expression here, the one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty and abides in it. The word of bides here means to take a permanent residency. It means to continue in it. So first you have to dig deep and then you have to remain continually in it. That's me a part of your life. I know a lot of people what they think is that these discipling disciplines we need to develop.

I need to get up every morning and read the Bible. You can get through the Bible by reading about four chapters and I need to spend a few minutes praying and I have my prayer list and I need to do these specific things as a follower of Christ. What James says is you need to take a residency in the word. I don't mean you have to read it to me for us today. What I mean is it's got to be a penetrating reality that goes right down to the depth of your being. Remain in it continually. See how to fix your life and your perception and your relationships and then we have to walk straight and what I mean by that is not what you typically people mean. What I mean by walking straight is from Galatians 2.14 we have to walk according to the gospel.

You see I thought I mean think about this a second. If Jesus would have come to Brentwood instead of Jerusalem we would have been just as offended as they were because he hung out with prostitutes and he hung out with tax gatherers who were what much worse than what we think of. It wasn't like the IRS. These guys were shysters. They gouged people. They cheated. They were the most despised people in the culture. Jesus hung out with low down people but not to enter in to fellowship with their sin but to live the gospel before them and they were delivered by believing on them. And the walk straight according to the gospel means we walk like Christ. That the ultimate dream of the Christian life isn't to find some place somewhere that you'd get away from sin.

That is belonging. That is not the gospel. We don't believe in Christian communions. We don't go out and isolate ourselves from the world and sin. We're going to the world and be believing in the gospel. Experience the power of the gospel yourself so that when you talk to somebody who looks like they're unchangeable you can say with confidence brother God can change you because I'm a sinner just like you and he's changing me. This gospel will transform you. We have to have that kind of confidence in the gospel to share it and to proclaim it and to live and then James says we'll experience the blessings. We the man who does it will be blessed. That's when transformation takes place. For so many years I used to think and I think I taught this way that you could teach the key to the Christian life.

I can give you five principles, eight principles, ten principles, thirteen steps. You know there's all kinds of ways to do it and that's what we bring success in the Christian life. It isn't because I tried all those formulas too taking all those steps. It's Christ. It's the gospel. That's that you free. It's believing in the gospel and all those truths that tell us the steps we have to take are pointing us to the gospel. In Romans chapter six when Paul tells us that we have in those certain things that we have a reckoning to be true and we have to present ourselves with father. You read a little further and he says this is the gospel. It's living the gospel. That's what he's called you to do.

Live the gospel and he says you have to humbly do it and you know what that's the trouble of college coming back to the gospel. Here's the problem. If you're really ugly you don't like mirrors, right? I don't like coming on a whole lot of mirrors around myself. I notice what I walk through a mall I am appalled at my shape. As I walk down there and call it and I look I glance in the mirror and I see my reflection. It's really depressing. I don't like the looking mirrors. The problem with the gospel is an obeying the gospel living by the gospel. It keeps showing you what you really are. And in fact the problem is it keeps going past the surface and it keeps digging deeper. That's what the Bible says.

It lays you open. It cuts you open this word of the gospel. It cuts you open. It lays you there before him to him. You must give my cap. You begin to see what God sees in your heart. And you realize that your problems aren't those people out there. It's this person right here. And so we avoid it. But James says it's the only way you can go. Keep coming back to this. Keep believing and obeying and digging in and understanding and responding in faith and obedience. Doing the work as it's open to you. The Bible will make you go to church. The gospel will make you go to church. It will make you become a part of a local church and become involved in the work of the gospel. When you start walking according to the gospel it will affect you.

And God wants you to be an effectual dera. Let's pray. Our Father here. We were so very grateful for the power of the gospel that we had experienced when we came to faith in Jesus Christ. When you transformed us from self-centered, self-seeking, proud people who wanted to have our own way and do our own thing. And the only part we wanted from you was for you to do something good for us so we could get what we wanted. And you changed us. You humbled us. You broke us. And we saw ourselves as we truly were. And we reached out and we called out. And you saved us through your gospel. Through Jesus Christ we pray that this powerful gospel would exert manifest its mighty power in our lives every day that would root out this overflow of wickedness that remains in our hearts.

That God we would have such faith that we could believe that you could even change us. At whatever stage in the Christian life we are in, that the gospel has the power to change and renew and restore and power. We pray that you would do that. It's in the name of Jesus. Amen.